Spring baseball turned into summer baseball Tuesday night at Victory Field. Temperatures were in the 80’s most of the day and still in the low 70’s at game time. Ah yes, game time. This is an important piece of Tuesday’s story. Start time was slated for 7 p.m. At 6:50 P.M., under mostly clear skies both teams had completed their warm-ups, and both starting pitchers were deep into preparation in their respective bullpens. Seven P.M. passed – no umps. By 7:15 P.M., Wilmington was throwing a football around. Finally at 7:20 the umps strolled in thru the DPW gate and across the football field. By 7:30 P.M. we had first pitch. Not a big deal on a beautiful summer-like night, right? Wrong, but first the skinny on a 4-0 Watertown win.
Sophomore Righthander Julian Boas got the start Tuesday night against Wilmington, who came into the game 0-3 in league play, losing three times last week, their first week of the season. Watertown was also 0-3 in league play, and like Wilmington, lost all three league games played last week. Boas got experience on the hill last season as a Freshman, and takes a regular turn in the rotation this year.
He has good velocity on his fastball, throws an affective breaking ball and mixes in a few change ups. What Boas has in spades is command and control. He can paint the outside corner with all his pitches, he knows when to mix in the fastball out of the strike zone, and best of all, he is not afraid to pitch inside and he does it with command. He sawed off many a batters Tuesday night with inside fastballs and his breaking ball. Rare to find someone so young so in control of location with his pitches, but Boas is, and it was on display Tuesday night.
Boas retired the side in order in the first, third and fourth innings. Of the 22 batters he faced on the night, he got nine outs via the groundball and he struck out five. Boas gave up a infield single in the second inning. The runner stole second, but never advanced. He gave up another infield single in the third, but the runner tried extending it into a double when the ball got past first basemen Peter Pavlidis. He chased down the the ball which took a favorable bounce off the fence and threw a strike to second to get the runner by a step-and-a-half. Through five innings, Boas had given up two hits and was in total command.
In the meantime, the Raiders lineup was looking to get going. They scored all of 2 runs in three games last week, albeit against some of the best in the Middlesex League — Lexington, Burlington and Belmont. And remember, the Raiders are young: five freshmen, a whopping 11 sophomores, five juniors and only two seniors. The Raiders have some good, young talent and Coach Manoukian knows that in time he will have a Middlesex League contender. For now, though, there will be good days and bad ones, and inconsistent play throughout.
Wilmington threw a tall righthander who displayed good stuff early, but he was a bit wild, and it cost him a run in the first inning. Number 2-hitter Jayden Pineda, who got on base all three at bats, was hit by a pitch. Three hitter Jason Ciulla drew a walk. On the first pitch to clean-up hitter Peter Pavlidis, Pineda got a great lead off second and easily stole third. A couple of pitches later Ciulla stole second. With two runners in scoring position, Pavlidis put bat on ball and drove in a run with a chopper to second. Ciulla moved to third on the ground out, but was stranded there. The Raiders though had a 1-0 lead.
The Raiders added a run in the fourth inning to go ahead 2-0. After back-to-back strikeouts, Logan Desrosiers and Mason Lamacchia legged out back-to-back infield singles. Gunnar Melling came up and hit a hard ball to Wilmington’s shortstop, who had already made a few good plays in the field, but he misplayed the groundball and Desrosiers scored from second on the error. In the fifth inning Senior Kingston Omalade led off and drilled a line drive single to left. Lead-off hitter Andrew Reilly followed up with a well-hit fly to left-center that both the left fielder and center fielder went after. Miscommunication won the day though and the ball fell in for a hit. Pineda followed with a single up the middle that Omalde had to see through before advancing to third.
Ciulla came up to the plate with the bases loaded, and on a 2-2 pitch the Wilmington pitcher tried to go inside on the lefty hitter, over-threw it and the wild pitch scored Omalade. Reilly moved to third and Ciulla hit a line drive on the 3-2 fastball to centerfield. It was caught, but Reilly scored on the sacrifice to make it 4-0.
On to the top of the 6th inning. Remember the umps and the summer night and the game being delayed by 30 minutes? Well, after getting the first out in the 6th, Boas gave up a single to centerfield. At about the same time, the winds picked up, big time. The wind throughout the first five innings was blowing out towards left field, and never more than 5 mph. All of the sudden the winds were strong and gusting and blowing in from left field. And along with the gusty wind was a rain drop or three. With a runner on first, Boas got the two-hitter to pop up. It was a moon shot to the left side, and both Melling and Ciulla, third base and shortstop respectively, chased towards the mound to catch it. But the gusts were so strong that it kept blowing the ball towards the first base line, and while Melling valiantly tried to stay with it, his dive came up short and the ball fell in for a single.
The runner at first advanced all the way to third, the first Wilmington runner to do so all night, and Boas was in trouble for the first time all night. And then he immediately buckled down and struck out the three hitter on three pitches. Two outs, runner on first and third. I interrupt this for a weather update … the gusty winds and occasional rain drops were quickly turning into gustier winds and steady rain. Boas, one out away from getting out of the jam, hit the clean-up hitter to load the bases. Weather update … it was now pouring as Boas pitched to the five-hitter, and he was one strike away from ending the inning. Weather update… the rain was coming down in sheets and the umpire sent both teams to the dugout. The fans had already left the stands and soon the teams would head home, too.
The forecast was for steady rain over the next hour, and the field was very slippery, and while unfortunate for Wilmington, trying to make a comeback and with the bases loaded, the decision was made to call the game. Enough innings had been played to make the game official, and Watertown had themselves a 4-0 shutout and a win for starting pitcher Julian Boas. He went 5 and 2/3 innings, giving up three hits and striking out five.
Stuff happens, and the umpires certainly didn’t show up late on purpose, but the shame of it all is this game, with two good pitchers on the mound, should have played out and never been affected by the rain, if it had started on time.
A good win for the Raiders, who move to 3-3 on the season and next face Woburn on Thursday at 4:30 at Victory Field.
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 – F
Wilmington 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 0
Watertown 1 0 0 1 2 x – 4
WP: Julian Boas
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